Depilating apparatus



Se t. 23, 1969 v. SOLEANICOV ET AL DEPILATING APPARATUS 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed July 25, 1966 VLADIMIR SOLEANICQV LAURENTIU ION PQP ERICH BREICHER INVENTOR.

Sept. 23, 1969 v, SQLEANICOV ET AL 3,468,141

DEPILATING APPARATUS Filed July 25, 1966 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 FIG.3

FIG.4

w VLADIMIR SOLEANICOV LAURENTIU ION POP ERICH BREICHER INVENTOR.

v BY W ATTORNEY Unite States Patent 3,468,141 DEPILATING APPARATUS Vladimir Soleauicov, Laurentiu Ion Pop, and Erich Breicher, Bucharest, Rumania, assiguors to Ministerul Industriei Alimentare, Bucharest, Rumauia, a corporation of Rumania Filed July 25, 1966, Ser. No. 567,744 Int. C1. C14]: 1/02 US. Cl. 69-20 3 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A portable apparatus for removing animal hair of hides of skinned and of slaughtered animals having a pair of parallel working rollers in contact with the hair and adapted to be drawn over the hide, one of the rollers being smooth and elastic while the other is provided with longitudinal corrugations formed in generally helicoidal bands with corrugation-free bands flanking the c0rrugated band, and an eccentric shaft for urging the rollers against one another, the corrugated band tearing the hair passing between the two rollers as the noncorrugated bands move over the hide.

The present invention relates to an apparatus for depilation (i.e. tearing out hair) of slaughtered animals or of hides skinned from the slaughtered animals.

Hitherto known apparatus for removing hair from the hides of slaughtered animals have been provided with combs adapted to direct the hair toward a pair of rollers. A lower roller, made of plastic or of metal, is provided with longitudinal flutes while the upper roller, of larger diameter, is provided with an elastic sheath and is driven by the fluted roller.

When it is desired to remove the hair from skinned hides of slaughtered animals, the hide is treated with a chemical solution capable of facilitating release of hair and is then passed through a device having pairs of hard rubber rollers the surfaces of which are formed with recesses. A drawback of these devices resides in the fact that the hair is seized by the lands of the flute or the regions adjoining the recesses along lines corresponding to generatrices of the fluted rollers, an action which results in breaking the hair. Chemical treatment of the skin and hair has a negative influence on the characteristics of both products, while the processing time is increased.

The principal object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for the tearing of hair from animal hide which avoids the aforementioned disadvantages and others inherent in earlier apparatus for the removal of animal hair.

Yet another object of this invention is to provide an apparatus for the removal of hair from animal hide wherein the hair can be recovered as it is withdrawn with the root and minimal breaking, thereby increasing the value of the hair obtained.

Yet another object of this invention is to provide an improved system for the recovery for removal of hair from animal hide efliciently and at a high rate.

These objects and others which will be apparent from the following description are attainable with a manually operable apparatus for tearing out hair, namely, animal hair from the hides of skinned animals or of slaughtered animals prior to skinning, which eliminates the need for preliminary processing of the hide and yet is capable of recovering the hair substantially intact. According to this invention, a pair of osculating working rollers, rotatable about parallel axes, are mounted in a support and are held against the animal hide so that both working rollers are substantially tangent thereto, a relatively large roller being positioned forwardly of a relatively small roller in the direction of advance of the device along the skin while being rotated by the small roller in a sense counter to the direction of advance at the region of contact between the hide and this large roller. The large roller is a smooth working roller (e.g. having a hard rubber sheath) for deflecting the hair upwardly between the two rollers. The device is provided with means including a lever and eccentric shaft which urges the rollers together thereby compensating any gap resulting from wear and adjusting the elastic pressure between the rollers. The small roller is provided with a helical lands in a form of a longitudinal grooved surface flanked by a pair of helical recesses such that sections after sections of the lands engage the hairs between the rollers with intervening periods of release of the hair thereby preventing breakage of the hair.

The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more readily apparent from the following description, reference being made to the accompanying drawing in which:

FIG. 1 is an elevational view, partly broken away, of the apparatus;

FIG. 2 is an end-view thereof;

FIGS. 3 and 4 are elevational views of the corrugated rollers of the present invention; and

FIGS. 5 and 6 are end-views diagrammatically illustrating the operation of the device.

In FIGS. 1 and 2 of the drawing, we show a hair-tremoval apparatus having a generally U-shaped guiding a frame 1 on which a pair of bearings 2 and 3 are mounted laterally so as to allow radial shifting (e.g. in the slot down at 4 in broken lines in FIG. 2) of a hard-rubber roller having a smooth peripheral surface. The roller 4 is disposed adjacent and in osculating relationship with a metallic roller 5 of smaller diameter rotatably supported by fixed bearings 6 and 7 in the guide frame 1. The metallic roller 5 has helically extending lands (a and b in FIGS. 3 and 4) separated by helically extending recesses as shown at c in FIGS. 3 and 4, the recesses flanking the lands. In FIG. 3, the lands a and 11 form simple helices whereas in FIG. 4 the lands a and b extend helically in opposite senses away from the center of the roller and have a configuration corresponding to that of a chevron. The helices are developed along characteristic pitch angles designed such that, as can be seen from FIGS. 5 and 6, the hair is drawn upwardly by the roller 4 when the recess (0) is disposed in confronting relationship with the surface of the smooth roller and the next succeeding lands a or b engages the hair close to the bottom of the clamp or tuft prior to drawing the tuft upwardly. The position of the rollers 4 and 5 relative to the hide have been somewhat exaggerated in FIGS. 5 and 6, it being understood that the two rollers 4, 5 generally contact or are held against the surface of the hide to be deprived of hair. The rollers are driven by an electric motor (represented diametrically at M) which is coupled to the roller 5 via a flexible shaft 9, an input shaft 10 and a planetary reduction gear 8. As can be seen from FIG. 2, bent hooks 13 outwardly of the support frame 1 are attached to the bearings 2 and 3 and are designed to draw the latter toward the bearing 6, 7 and hold the roller 4 yieldably against the roller 5, the contact pressure being tightened by rotating the eccentric shaft 12 (FIG. 2) in the counterclockwise direction. The lever 11, which also serves as a handle for supporting the device against the animal hide, is coupled with the shaft 12 and can rotate the latter to tighten the rollers 4 and 5 in contact with one another. A fixed gear sector 14 (FIGS. 1 and 2) is engaged by a pawl 15 carried by the handle 11 to lock the shaft 12 in position. The lever 11 and the eccentric shaft 12 are thus able to compensate for wear of the rollers and to increase or decrease the radial pressure with which the tufts of hair are gripped.

When it is desired to use the device for the removal of hair from an animal hide, the apparatus is placed against the skin of the slaughtered animal by means of the lever 11 and is urged in a direction counter to the hair orientation or growth (i.e. to the left in FIGS. 5 and 6). The roller 4, rotated in the opposite direction at the region at which the roller contacts the skin (i.e. counterclockwise in FIGS. 5 and 6), frictionally sweeps the hair upwardly (FIG. 6), when a recess confronts the roller 4. The tufts of hair thus glide upwardly and are then seized by the following land a or b of the roller 5 which is provided with longitudinal grooves as is illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 4. In eifect, therefore, the hair is drawn upwardly in a lifting action without damage.

The improvement described and illustrated is believed to admit of many modifications within the ability of persons skilled in the art, all such modifications being considered within the spirit and scope of the invention except as limited by the appended claims.

We claim:

1. An apparatus for removing hair from animal hide, comprising a portable guide frame adapted to be drawn along the animal hide, a pair of rollers journaled in said guide frame for rotation about mutually parallel axes, and osculating one another while being engageable with the hide upon movement of said guide frame in a direction of advance thereof, a forwardly one of said rollers in said direction of advance having a relatively smooth periphery frictionally engageable with the hair on the hide, the other of said rollers being formed with helical lands and helical recesses flanking said lands, the lands of said other of said rollers being longitudinally fluted parallel to their axes, an eccentric shaft rotatably mounted in said frame and extending generally parallel to the axes of said rollers, at least one of said rollers being mounted in said frame for movement toward the other of said rollers, a pair of resilient hooks operatively connected tosaid one of said rollers while accommodating rotation thereof and to said eccentric shaft, means for rotating said eccentric shaft for drawing said one of said rollers into contact with the other of said rollers with increasing pressure upon rotation of said eccentric shaft, and means for retaining said eccentric shaft in a selected angular position upon its rotation.

2. An apparatus as defined in claim 1, further comprising a motor for driving said other roller, a flexible shaft connected with said motor, and a planetary reduction gear interposed between said flexible shaft and said other roller.

3. An apparatus as defined in claim 2, further comprising a handle secured to said eccentric shaft and adapted to rotate same, the last-mentioned means including a toothed segment mounted on said frame and a pawl carried by said handle and engageable with said toothed segment.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,121,925 6/1938 Oczko 6937 2,122,006 6/ 1938 Jolly et a1. 19-2 2,516,374 7/1950 Eisen 69-20 2,788,651 4/ 1957 Qwarnstriim 69-20 ALFRED R. GUEST, Primary Examiner. 

